


Mending the Fray

by Merfilly



Series: Rise Up, Rebels [18]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-21
Updated: 2016-04-21
Packaged: 2018-06-03 14:07:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6613582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Anakin has one person left to handle, but she doesn't seem to want to deal with him. Luckily, Obi-Wan is still able to advise him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mending the Fray

Shockingly, the run into and out of the Maw went exactly as planned. Anakin guided them in, a squad of six heavily armed ships with landing forces. What they found in there — well, no one would doubt Anakin's choice of targets again. Destroying the facilities had led to hijacking one Destroyer to take on the slave population and rigging the huge sphere to self-destruct.

Getting that Destroyer back out had been an interesting time, but Anakin was still every bit the pilot he'd ever been. They'd taken the squad of ships aboard it, and then Anakin chose Ahsoka to help him navigate.

Only Obi-Wan saw how much the Togruta really did not want to do that, and he'd offered himself in her place.

Now, with a captured Destroyer, and the family all aboard the _Stubborn Hope_ again, Anakin went to try and find his former apprentice, wanting answers on why she was avoiding him. Wasn't it enough she'd left him when he needed her most? Was she really going to leave him to fight his temper as he learned to be a father and work under Padmé to destroy the Empire?

Obi-Wan intercepted Anakin in the hallway. "Don't," he said softly, catching Anakin around his elbow gently.

"We don't have the luxury of time to indulge her moods, Obi-Wan."

The elder Jedi shook his head. "Do you think you or I are the only ones carrying guilt for all that has happened? She flat out attacked me for failing you when Padmé first found her. She has been the most loyal protector and teacher of your children that she can be, driving herself to learn from every single holocron I've managed to recover. She won't let me in, even when we meditate together. She cuts her true self off, and only lets me in the surface of her mind.

"That young woman needs the space to come to you, on her terms, or all you will do is drive her deeper into herself."

Anakin was glad the mask still hid his features. He could not believe Ahsoka, brave as she was, strong as she had been, would be avoiding him because of … guilt? She felt guilt?

A part of him wanted to say that was only fair, but another part remembered the pain etched in her face as she gave him back the beads. A part of him knew that he'd had to accept her leaving, or she would have been just as chained in misery as he had been.

"I don't want to wait," he finally admitted. "She left to be true to herself, the one thing I could not."

"I don't even know if it is just you that drives her guilt, Anakin. Every time we've found a clone, fought one, or heard of their deaths… it's cut through her deeply," Obi-Wan told him. 

That made sense, in a way that left Anakin thankful for his mechanical breathing regulator. Ahsoka had been so young when she joined him in the war, and the clones had been her family, her friends, her teachers just as much as he had been. Maybe more.

"I still want to talk to her."

Obi-Wan sighed, letting go of his friend. "She's in the cockpit, alone."

+++++

Ahsoka did not look back as Anakin stepped inside with her. She controlled her breathing, staying as calm as she could. She did not want to talk to him, but he'd always been so stubborn. At just a little over sixteen, leaving him had been the only thing that made sense. At seventeen, she'd seen the horror of having added to why he had fallen. At twenty-one, she was thankful Padmé had rescued him, that the twins had their father back.

She didn't know how to move forward, though, with who they were. What were they, even? She wasn't even a real Jedi, no matter how she pushed herself to be one. He was a Fallen Jedi, a Sith Lord for as many years as he'd been a Knight.

"I'm sorry," he said, and that… that was nothing of what she had expected. He knew it too, from the way her lekku stiffened, then paled in vibrancy. It also made her turn, as he slipped into the co-pilot seat. "I'm sorry that I tried to make you work with me before you were ready. I understand if you would rather not deal with me at all."

She swallowed hard, and then she took a ragged breath. "I hung on to a hope you were still in there," she whispered. "I promised myself that I'd take care of the twins, to give them all that you gave me."

"You've done well by them, by Padmé, even by Obi-Wan. You've grown into a very strong woman, in all ways, Ahsoka. I don't have a right to it anymore, but I am proud of you."

Those words broke her in ways she didn't think were possible any longer. She'd done her crying already, yet she found herself throwing herself over into his space, arms twining around the armor, face against the smooth plate of a shoulder, tears flowing too freely. He hesitated, just a moment, before he slid his arms around her, holding her there. Tentatively, he let that frayed bond slowly open, offering it to her. When she latched on like a drowning youngling, he strengthened his hold on her, in the Force and physically.

She had no words, but he could feel the guilt, the regrets, and her sense of wanting him whole and safe. He felt her vast, unending need to protect _him_ , and it took away any last anger he could have held with her. He closed his eyes, falling into that silent communion.

//Never will let go again.//

//Never.//

How long they stayed like that, Anakin was unsure. He didn't even want to let go, but when he felt her breathing steady into sleep, he carefully stood and carried her back to the nursery, putting her to bed. It felt good to cover her up, to show the care he hadn't been able to in so long.

Maybe this was another part of healing, of climbing back to the Light.


End file.
